


Traumatized

by SammY16



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Cute, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Psychological Trauma, Romance, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28054017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SammY16/pseuds/SammY16
Summary: One night, when Levi and Hange are still working, they hear a sound coming from the hallway. It is Armin, but he is not being himself. He looks traumatized, so Levi and Hange decide to take him to Hange's room and take care of him. Set after chapter 85
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

“Oi, four-eyes.” Levi slammed both hands onto the large desk in the middle of the room.   
The brunettes head shot up. “I’m awake! I wasn’t sleeping!” She opened her eye and stared right into a pair of grey ones. “Levi, didn’t you leave already?”   
“Yes, and now I’m back.” He walked around the desk to the chair standing next to her. “If you’re tired, just go to sleep. I’m not looking forward to rewriting everything because you didn’t pay enough attention.”   
Hange clasped her hands together and raised them above her head, stretching to loosen the stiffened muscles. “Levi, you know me better than that, I would never do something halfhearted.”   
“No, but making stupid mistakes is your specialty.”   
Hange only responded with an irritated groan. “If you’ve got nothing better to do, you may leave again.” She grabbed a bunch of papers and flipped through them, looking for one specific piece of paper.   
“Nah, I need to make sure you get at least three hours of sleep this night.” He leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs.   
“I’m not sure you will succeed in that.”   
“You’ll see.”   
Only the sound of rustling paper and the point of an ink pen scraping over the it filled the room while Hange continued her work. Levi just stared at her, not caring if he was being obvious. Her eyepatch had been removed to give her injured eye some air. It looked disgusting, but this was the only thing he didn’t mind being disgusting. He knew that his nickname ‘four-eyes’ didn’t really count anymore, yet he couldn’t help calling her that. Him saying her real name was something that barely happened, and it’s not like she complained about it or anything.   
“Levi.” Her whispering voice suddenly rose from the silent room.   
“Hmm?”   
“Did you hear that?”  
“No.”   
“Really? You didn’t hear a thud, something or someone falling on the ground?” She looked at the door, as if someone would walk into the room in the very next moment.   
“Why would I hear someone falling in the middle of the night?” he asked irritated.   
“Exactly.”  
“No, not exactly. You’re probably imaging it.” He reached over the desk to the teapot and poured himself a cup of tea. “You’re tired.”  
“I’m not, and I know I heard something.”   
“Whatever.” Levi leaned back again and took a sip of the hot tea, ignoring her piercing eye. It was silent for a few seconds. He saw her trying to focus on the research file in her hands, but her interest lay somewhere else. She looked back at the door. Levi let out a heavy sigh and put down his cup on the desk. “Hange-“ he began, but was silenced by a finger against his lips. He looked at her questionably.   
“Ssh,” Hange said and stood up. She removed her finger from his mouth and with light footsteps she made her way to the door.   
Levi turned in his chair to follow her with his eyes. Hange opened the door slowly without making any noise. Excited for what was going to see, she poked her head through the small opening. It was dark in the hallway, the little moonlight shining through the windows didn’t help her much with seeing whatever there was to be seen. As her eyes got adjusted to the darkness, she scanned the hallway in search of a dark figure sitting or lying somewhere. To the right side of her room she saw something about ten meters away from her. “There’s someone sitting on the ground,” she whispered as she looked over her shoulder to Levi.   
“Who?” Levi asked and stood up.   
“How am I supposed to know? It’s too dark to see.”   
Hange stepped aside as Levi approached her. She pushed the door further open so they both could look around the hallway.   
“Where?”   
She reached out and pointed to the figure hiding in the shadows. Levi’s hair touched her arm as he turned his head to follow her hand. She then realized she had unconsciously moved closer to him. So close that if he were to turn around and she would bent just a little, her lips could touch his forehead. Not that she was thinking about it.   
“You wanna help them?” Levi asked, interrupting her thoughts.   
“you want to leave them there then?”   
“I didn’t say that,” Levi scoffed and stepped inside the hallway. He walked over to the figure, with Hange behind him. “Oi, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”   
The figure stayed silent.   
“He didn’t hear you,” Hange said and kneeled down. She saw that the person was hugging their knew and slowly swinging from side to side.   
“As if I hadn’t noticed yet.”   
Hange didn’t say anything to some back at him, too focused at the person in front of her. She already knew it wasn’t going to be easy to get the person to talk to them. She could see it at how she and Levi were still air to the person.   
“Is it… recruit Arlert?” Levi asked as he also kneeled down.   
Hange examined the person. The slim figure and blonde bowl cut made it pretty clear that it was Armin Arlert. “Armin?” She reached out and let her hand rest on his shoulder. “Armin?”   
He still didn’t pay attention to them.   
“Maybe you should speak louder, four-eyes. He’s in his own world.”   
Hange considered calling his name again, but she didn’t. Instead she moved closer to the boy. “No, we need to be careful with the state he is in right now.” Her hand travelled from his shoulder over his arm to his hands, covering his face. She grabbed his hand and pulled them away.   
Armin had his eyes closed, but Hange could see that he’d been crying. There were dark circles around his eyes and his cheeks were wet from the tears. Hange used her sleeve to dry off his cheeks and chin and then softly rubbed his eyes. “Armin?” she tried again.   
“Hmm.” The sound came from deep down his throat, not really forming words.   
“Can you tell us why you’re here?”   
Armin opened his eyes, red, wide open. His bottom lip started to tremble. He tried to free his hands from Hange’s grip on them, but he was too weak in his current state. He kept struggling, his soft breathing turned into panting. His eyes shot from Hange to Levi and back to Hange, pleading her to… do something. But Hange couldn’t place what. She only knew that he was scared, beyond scared. Terror was written all over his face.   
“It’s okay, you don’t have to.” Hange turned to Levi, asking him what they should do, without using words.   
“Let’s bring him to your room. Maybe he will feel a little saver then.”   
Hange nodded and they both stood up, each grabbing one of Armin’s arms to help him stand up. 

Hange and Levi stared down at the boy laying in Hange’s bed. He lay on his side, facing them, legs curled up, a blanket put over him, covering him up to his chin.   
“I think he’s traumatized by something,” Hange said, breaking the silence.   
“I think so too.”   
“I also think that we should try talking to him after he is calmed down.”   
“I agree.”  
“So what now?”   
“I don’t know. We can check some more reports and after that we’ll see what his condition will allow us to do.”   
Hange nodded. She walked to her chair and sat down. “To be honest, it pains me to see one of our smartest soldiers be so vulnerable.”   
“Yeah, but it’s not the first time someone succumbed to these kind of feelings.” Levi sat down on the other chair. “Let’s hope it’s only gonna be this one time.”   
“Yes, we cant afford to lose him.”


	2. Chapter 2

What should’ve been half an hour or something turned into hours of reading and rewriting reports. Armin had fallen soon into a deep sleep after lying down. Levi and Hange were afraid of what was going to happen if they woke him up, so they’d decided to just wait for him to wake up by himself.   
“What time is it, Levi?” Hange asked before she yawned. She took her glasses off and put them on the desk. She watched Levi grabbing his pocket watch as she rested her head on her arms, which were crossed over each other on the desk.   
“Almost five o’clock.”   
“Wanna try to get some sleep?” She suppressed another yawn with covering her mouth with her hand, keeping it closed.   
“We can try, as long as we don’t wake up Armin.”   
Hange turned around on the chair, looking at Armin. He hadn’t moved one muscle since lying there.   
“Wait, where do you want to sleep? We can’t leave him alone,” Levi said.   
“Ah, didn’t think about that.” She chuckled shyly as her eyes lit up with an idea.   
“It’s a no for whatever you’re thinking about, four-eyes,” Levi said quickly.  
“Awh, come on Levi, I haven’t even said anything yet.”  
“Your eyes say enough.” The smile on her lips vanished for a not even a second, but Levi noticed it. “I’m sorry.”  
“No, you don’t need to apologize for it. I also forget it sometimes.” She touched her injured eye softly with her fingers. The tension in the room got awkward. She’d noticed he’d been staring at her. Pushing away her thoughts she continued with telling him her idea. “So my idea, if we do it as slowly and quietly as possible we can crawl in bed next to Armin.”   
“Yeah, right. I’m not going to sleep next to another man.”   
“Since when is he a man for you, you always call them brats and kids.”   
“Doesn’t mean he’s not a man,” Levi bit back.   
Hange let out a tired sigh. “Do whatever you want. I’m going to sleep in my bed next to Armin.” She stood up and removed her blouse and pants, leaving her in her underwear and tank top. She placed her clothes on the chair and walked towards the bed, to the other side. “You’re free to join,” she said as slowly sat down on the mattress and shove her legs underneath the blanket. As she lay comfortable she closed her eye, only to open it again a few seconds later.   
“If you say something about this to other people, I’ll personally come to kill you,” Levi said. He also removed his clothes and neatly folded them. He put his clothes on his chair, just like Hange did, and took one more sip of his cold tea before joining Hange and Armin. “Move a little, four-eyes.”   
Hange shove to the middle of the bed, Armin at her left and Levi at her right side. It was a bit cramped, but for a few hours it wasn’t bad. Both men had their back turned to Hange, so she lay on her back, staring at the ceiling. “Levi, are you sleeping?” she whispered.   
“Yes, you should try it too.”  
“I can’t.”   
Levi said nothing, but that didn’t stop her from talking. “I keep thinking about what to do tomorrow. What if Armin can’t remember what had happened? What if he can’t return to his usual self? What if it’s going to happen during a mission? What if-“  
“Hange, stop.” Levi turned on his left side. “You’re tired. Just close your eyes and-“   
“I can’t.” Specific memories were haunting her and not only when she closed her eye. They stayed with her with everything she did, eating, reading, doing paperwork stuff, walking with people, even when she was in the bathroom.   
“Hange?”   
She looked to her right and stared at the lips that had said her name. she felt his hand softly grabbing one of hers, which were lying on top of the blanket, resting on her stomach.   
“I know. It’s difficult, but you need to sleep. We can’t go on without our smart and shitty commander.”   
Hange smiled by his choice of words. Leave it to Levi to compliment and insult her at the same time. “You’re right. The Survey Corps would be fucked up without me.”   
“Yes, now close your eyes and sleep.” He gave her hand a light squeeze. She finally closed her eye and tried not to pay attention to the those memories. 

Not even two minutes later she heard mumbling coming from her left side.   
“No…No…stop it,” Armin whispered.   
“Armin?” Hange whispered as she sat up.   
“No,” he said again.   
“Is he awake?” Levi asked.   
“I don’t know.”   
Armin turned on his back and his hands shot up to his head, the palms of his hands covering his eyes. He’d stopped talking. The room was silent for a moment. Hange shifted a little and was about to lay back down when an inhuman scream rose from the boy next to her. Hange had almost jumped on top of Levi if he himself hadn’t jumped up. He sat behind Hange and stared in shock over her shoulder to Armin. He opened his mouth to say something, but he couldn’t, the words were stuck in his throat. Visions of his friends and comrades dying on his watch flashed through his head. Levi had spend so many years on not being emotional in front of others, always succeeding in holding in the tears until he was alone in his room. But Armin’s scream made him loose his control over all those emotions. His vision started to get blurry. Tears filled his eyes. He heard a sniffling sound coming from Hange. It seemed that she had been brought to tears too.   
The heavy breathing of three people was the only noise to be heard in the room. Levi instinctively put his hand on Hange’s back and started to gently rub her back a little. “Hange,” he said but she shook her head.   
“I’m alright. I don’t know about Armin though.”  
“Armin?”   
Armin slowly got up and looked around the room. Realization hit him as his eyes rested upon Hange and Levi sitting in the same bed in only their underwear.   
“Do you remember what happened?” Hange asked.   
The blond boy nodded. “I remember.”   
Levi swung his legs over the edge of the mattress and got out of bed. He walked around it towards Armin. “Can you tell us a bit more about what happened?” he asked as he sat down on the bed, in front of Armin.   
Hange had come closer and took one of his hand in hers. “Just take it slow, we have all night.”   
Something inside Levi made him turn his head away from the woman. Probably his pride. Her smile towards Armin gave him a feeling he’d never really given any thought.   
“A nightmare. I had a nightmare.”   
“Only this night?” Hange asked.   
“Almost every night.”   
“Let me guess, about…” Levi had to rethink his words, saying that one specific name was too difficult.“ About the end of that terrible fight which costed way too many lives.”   
“Yes.”   
“You’re not the only one Armin. The reason why Levi and I were together until late at night is because of the same occurrence. We both can’t sleep. It’s as if pictures are constantly popping up in our heads. And no matter what we do it won’t leave us alone.” Hange gave his hand a little squeeze.   
“I-I really don’t know what to do about it. It keeps coming back. Even if I am doing something that requires all my attention, eventually my brain just stops and it lets the thoughts haunt me. I do everything to keep myself busy in the hope it helps, I spent time with Eren and Mikasa, I read at least two books a day, just before I go to sleep I try to think about other things, like the sea, or I say to myself that it’s not my fault and that I don’t need to feel guilty or despicable, but I still get these-“  
“Armin!” Levi grabbed the boy by his shoulders and shook him gently. “Calm down.”   
A waterfall of tears streamed down Armin’s face, dripping from his chin onto the blanket. His breathing had quickened again. “I can’t-“   
“You can, Armin,” Hange said. She was still holding his hand and brought it to her face.   
Heat rushed to his cheeks as Hange placed a featherlight kiss on his skin. Armin wasn’t the only one blushing. Levi stared at Hange with big eyes as he let go of Armin’s shoulders. He’d never seen her as the type to express motherly feelings. That sensation from before came back. Levi knew what it meant, yet he wouldn’t agree with it. He wasn’t one to get jealous over these kind of things. Especially not when he knew there was nothing behind it.   
“It’s going to be alright, eventually,” she said.   
Armin said nothing. He knew as well as Hange that ‘eventually’ would take a very long time to come. They were part of the Survey Corps, situations like these will come back at a regular basis.   
“But we all understand it’s difficult to live with these thoughts haunting you.”   
Levi didn’t agree with giving the kid false hope on ‘eventually’ having a better life. The death of friends, comrades, family, you will never be able to forget it or to not think about it as if it’s your fault. He knew all too well it was impossible to not blame yourself. But this was Armin they were talking to. He was one of the smartest kids of his age. And they needed him, just like the Survey Corps was close to nothing at this moment without himself, Hange or Mikasa. They needed the strongest, smartest and most crazy people to win from the titans and the outside world. This was only to make sure he could get some sleep so he wouldn’t end up like him. “Hange is right, it’ll be alright, but it takes time and, even though I hate to admit it, you need friends who will be there for you and listen to you to help you get through it all.” He didn’t dare to make eye contact with Hange. He’d never said it out loud, but it was the truth. Even with not looking at her, he felt her eye burning into his skin.   
“Levi…“   
“Do you feel better Armin?” Levi asked, trying to ignore Hange.   
“A little bit.”   
It was dark in the room, but not dark enough to hide the blush on Armin’s face. He probably felt as uncomfortable as Levi at this moment.   
“Shall we try again to get some sleep?”   
“We?” Armin asked and switched his stare from Levi to Hange.   
“Yes we,” Hange said, while making with her hand a circling gesture between them.   
“Here?”  
“Yes Armin, here. Why? You don’t like that idea?” Levi asked slightly irritated and got up from the bed.   
“No! I mean, I don’t mind as long as I’m not a hindrance to you.”   
“You’ve already been.” Levi saw the hurt look on Armin’s face and began to feel guilty. “But that’s okay,” he added quickly to prevent another stream of tears.   
“I’m sorry,” Armin whispered.   
“Don’t be,” Hange said and squeezed his hand one more time.   
Armin nodded and looked up at Levi, standing next to him.   
“Move.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Levi?” Hange’s voice sounded loud in the silent room.   
“Yes?”   
It had been one hour, one long hour. Armin couldn’t lay still. He’d kept turning and spinning, not being able to get into a comfortable sleeping position, until Hange decided to bring up her motherly touches again. She had put her right hand on his hip and turned him to her on his right side. Her hand had travelled up to his waist and stayed there. Armin had looked surprised, but he’d let her do as she wanted. It did help him after all. And now he’d finally fallen asleep.   
“Are you still awake?”  
“How could I answer you otherwise, four-eyes?”  
“You sound tired though.”  
He cursed at himself for having a shaky voice that betrayed him. In stead of denying it, he gave in. “Of course I am.”   
“Are your eyes open?”   
“No.” He began to get annoyed by her questions. Why couldn’t she just get to the point?   
“Open them.”  
He obeyed her and was about to sit up to look at Hange before he saw her hand moving. The one hand that was resting on Armin’s waist waved at him. “What do you want?”   
Hange opened her hand and offered it to Levi to hold it.   
“I’m not going to hold your hand,” he said. He understood why she wanted it, but is was not in his personality to do so.   
“Please?”  
Her sweet voice had a hypnotizing effect on him. “Hange…”  
“Please?” she asked again.   
Levi let out a heavy sigh and shifted closer to Armin. “I’m going to say it one more time, if you tell anyone-“   
“I won’t, I promise.”   
“Good.” He brought his hand to hers. They’d never hold hands with each other before and doing it in this situation, made him even more aware of his feelings towards the woman. How childish it may sound, this new sensation made him nervous. He said nothing. He only closed his fingers around her hand.   
“Your hand is cold, Levi.”   
The fact that she dared to say his name in her whisper like voice was bringing him close to his boundaries. “Go to sleep, Hange.” He didn’t hear anything for a few minutes. He started to think if she’d already fallen asleep, until he heard her take a deep breath.   
“Goodnight Levi.”  
“Goodnight.” He couldn’t say her name again, but they both didn’t care. He’d said her name enough times this night. 

The early morning noises sounded though the slightly open window and through the wooden walls and door. Hange rolled onto her stomach, trying to block the sunlight from her face. It had been ages since she’d such a good night sleep. She turned her head to her right side and slowly opened her eyes, the noise from outside made her unable to enjoy the sleep much longer. “Armin?” she whispered to herself as soon as her eyes adjusted to the light.   
The blond haired boy lay next to her, facing her. He had a serene look on his face.   
Hange wanted to move her hand to touch his face, but it seemed like she was holding onto something. It felt like someone else’ hand. Memories from last night, or this morning, came back. It then occurred to her that she was still holding hands with Levi.   
“Levi?” she whispered. In stead of waking up Levi, Armin woke up.   
As he opened his eyes, he was just as surprised as Hange was. “Hange-san? What- Where am I?”   
“In my room.”  
“Oh.”  
“Do you remember?”  
“Yes.”  
“Good, please keep remembering it.” She smiled softly at him, which was the cause of a light blush creeping up Armin’s cheeks. “I think Levi is still asleep, so let’s keep silent and try not to move too much and rest some more.”   
Armin nodded and closed his eyes again.   
Hange really wanted to touch Armin’s hair, it looked so soft in the golden rays of sunlight. But she didn’t want to wake up Levi by pulling her hand away from his. Minutes passed and Hange noticed that Armin had gone back to sleep. She, on the other hand, was too busy thinking about what she and Levi should do with Armin. She couldn’t let him sleep alone if those nightmares kept coming back. Letting him sleep in her room was a possibility, it’s not as if there were a lot of people who could misunderstand. Most of them would even try to help Armin, especially two of them, who’d pulled their swords at Levi to force him to save Armin. Maybe she should just let the kids take care of this. She’d seen how Levi’s eyes were filled with jealousy every time she touched Armin. She didn’t think much of touching the boy, it was just to calm him down, to make him feel he was not alone. She’d read it somewhere in one of her books and figured this would be the best opportunity to try if it really works. She was sure Levi knew that there was nothing more behind it, yet it had such a big effect on him.   
Hange felt that she was slowly fading away. Thinking so much in the early morning made her tired again. She was half asleep as she heard a knock on the door in the distance. It didn’t make her enough to give a reaction. The person knocked again, but not much louder. The door opened and whispering voices were holding a discussion.   
“Hange-san?” It was Jean’s voice.   
“Why are you calling her by her name?” someone whispered quite loud.   
“Uh, because she’s a person and that’s her name, Jean bit back sarcastically.   
Hange smiled, she could imagine the other person rolling their eyes in annoyance.   
“I meant that she is the commander.”  
“So?”  
“So, you need to address her by her position title.”  
“Guys,” a woman’s voice stopped the two from arguing any further. “Look.”   
The thing that she pointed at made the silence return in the room.   
“Is that…”  
“Yeah, I think so.”  
“But why?”  
“How are we supposed to know?”  
Hange moved her head a little so she could look over Armin and Levi to the trio standing in the door opening. They saw her looking at them and nodded their heads as a greeting.   
“Uh H-Hange-san,” Jean whispered awkwardly, “We brought your breakfast. Shall … I place it on the desk?”   
Hange nodded. Jean tip-toed through the room to the desk. With one hand he shove some papers aside and placed the tray on the open space, doing everything as silent as possible. He turned around to walk back to Eren and Mikasa, but stopped his movements as another voice rose from the silence.   
“Hange, what are you looking at?”   
Levi’s stern voice brought Hange’s attention to him. “Levi…”   
Before Hange could say more, Levi sat up and turned to see what she’d been looking at. As soon as his eyes made contact with Jean’s, he tossed away the blankets and sprung out of bed.


End file.
